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The Brewers’ veteran centerfielder was back in the lineup Thursday night for the opener of the big series against the Cubs at Miller Park after missing four starts with what was called a bruised knee. Typically stoic about injuries, Cain nevertheless indicated he is dealing with more than a bruise.

“I’m good enough to go,” Cain said. “I’ll be out there tonight and hopefully the rest of the season. That’s up to (manager Craig) Counsell. Right now, they told me I need rest to get it better. I don’t really have time for rest.

“It’s the same but I’m good enough to play. So, I’ll go out there and see what I have. It’s affecting me, as far as running. But hitting and everything else is fine. As far as getting to top speed the way I want to, it’s definitely affecting me.

It has been a tough season for Cain, 33, on the health front, and his production has suffered accordingly. He played for weeks with an inflamed nerve in his right thumb before finally having a cryotherapy injection in late June.

The knee issue arose after multiple charging, sliding catches in which he jammed it into the ground, finally getting to the point where he needed time off.

“We have him a little break; it helps,” Counsell said. “Now, we’ll see what playing on it and banging it around does. Hopefully, he’s going to run around a lot because he’s on base a lot and making a lot of plays, and then we’ll see how it responds.

“I think that’s where we’ll be at for a little while. There can be rest in there, too. We can arrange that. But there’s days like today when we’ll need him in there. We’d like him in there every day but if we have to give him some rest, I think we can work around that.”

Another injury worse than originally advertised is the bruised left wrist/hand of third baseman Mike Moustakas. He missed five games, then played in the first game against Houston and was removed in the ninth inning after going 0-for-4 because it hurt too much to grip the bat.

Counsell said Moustakas received an injection in the bruised area Wednesday with hopes of facilitating healing but added, “He’s still hurting. We’re struggling a little bit.

“I think we knew it was going to be bad. When you avoid a break to the hand, you know you’re going to miss some time, but bruises get better. This one, because of where it’s at, it’s more than just a bone bruise or a bruise to some tissue. The tendons in his hand are being affected and it’s just not healing as quickly as we’d like.”

Hall back where it began

Bill Hall last played for the Brewers in 2009, and hadn’t played in the majors since 2012. So, why was it important for the former infielder/outfielder to come back to Milwaukee to officially retire with the Brewers on Thursday?

“I wanted to come home; this is home,” Hall said during a pregame ceremony at Miller Park. “I was drafted here, had my best baseball memories here. Met a lot of awesome people, had a lot of awesome teammates. The fans are unbelievable.

“This is where I spent the majority of my career. I was a ‘baby’ when I was drafted out of Mississippi. To be able to come back here and retire, I call it the beginning and the end. No better place for it to end, right here and right now.”

Hall, 39, was a starter at shortstop, third base and center field during various stages of his eight seasons in Milwaukee, finishing with a .253 batting average, 102 homers and 367 RBI in 831 games. He is famous in club lore for the walk-off home run he hit against the Mets on Mother’s Day 2006, using a pink bat, with mom Vergie in the stands at Miller Park.

But Hall said his best memories of his time with the Brewers include the consecutive games in 2004 that he won with a walk-off homer, then a walk-off suicide squeeze to complete a comeback from a 9-0 deficit against Cincinnati.

Hall was a transitional player for the Brewers, helping them span the gap from losers in the early 2000s to finally getting to the playoffs in ’08 after a 26-year drought.

“I was the first guy up from that group,” he said. “We had the 106-loss season in 2002. It was tough. There wasn’t a lot of energy in our games. But we started to build around the other young guys who came up, Prince (Fielder) and J.J. (Hardy) and those guys. I still stay in contact with all those guys.”

Hall is dabbling in a possible new career by serving on the pre-game and post-game telecasts for FS Wisconsin during the Cubs series.